Two-thirds of New Hampshire voters say Trump should not receive presidential immunity says poll

Nearly two in three New Hampshire voters believe Donald Trump should not receive immunity from criminal prosecution for actions while he was president, according to a Marist College poll.

The poll released Friday comes four days ahead of the state's first-in-the-nation primary, where the former president is maintaining his lead among GOP presidential candidates such as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Trump is currently awaiting a ruling from a federal appeals court on his claim of presidential immunity from criminal charges related to his effort to subvert the 2020 election. The federal appeals court panel strongly suggested last week that it would reject Trump’s claims of immunity from criminal charges.

On early Thursday, Trump posted on social media that a president "must have complete and total presidential immunity."

"A president of the United States must have full immunity, without which it would be impossible for him/her to properly function," Trump said in a post on Truth Social in all caps. "Any mistake, even if well intended, would be met with almost certain indictment by the opposing party at term end. Even events that 'cross the line' must fall under total immunity, or it will be years of trauma trying to determine good from bad."

"Sometimes you just have to live with 'great but slightly imperfect,'" Trump added. "All presidents must have complete & total presidential immunity, or the authority & decisiveness of a president of the United States will be stripped & gone forever. Hopefully this will be an easy decision. God bless the Supreme Court!"

Overall, only 33 percent of voters said Trump should have immunity from prosecution for actions he took while he was president, though that included 69 percent of Republicans, according to the Marist poll.

In addition to its role as an early primary state, New Hampshire and its four electoral votes are typically contested in the general election. Trump lost the state twice: narrowly to Hillary Clinton in 2016, and more decisively to now-President Joe Biden in 2020.

The Marist poll of 1,157 New Hampshire voters was conducted Jan. 15-17 by telephone, text message and online, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.